The History of Forte
by TheSoundDefense
Summary: A companion piece to New MegaMan Battle Network, exploring the origins of Megaman's greatest enemy. This story will eventually be included in New Megaman Battle Network and has stopped updating on its own.
1. Chapter 1

**The History of Forte**

A companion piece to New MegaMan Battle Network.

_Editor's Note: this story is meant to flesh out and enhance the universe of NMMBN. It takes place concurrent to, and reveals plot details of, the original story._

----------

Chapter 1

"...appears to have failed. The network's construction hasn't changed in any way our computers can measure."

"EM waves have evaporated, as far as we can tell. Ah well, next time we'll... wait, hold on..."

"...what the devil? Is that a Navi in there?"

"Hey, you! What are you doing here? Don't you know this is restricted Net space?"

In a research computer several floors above the lobby of SciLab, a Navi opened his eyes. He looked around, trying to discern where he was.

"Look at him, look at his design. He's got fins on his head, he's all in black... he doesn't look like any SciLab Navi I've ever seen."

"How on Earth did he even get here? This whole Net space was cleared before the experiment began, there was no way he could have gotten in."

"Look at where he's standing, he's located right at the synthesis point. That's impossible..."

"Wait... you mean after our experiment, he was... Dr. Doppler! Come over here, quickly!"

The Navi looked up, hearing a number of voices, but not sure what they were talking about; he ignored them, instead thinking back on himself. Before he woke up here, he was...he rubbed his head, unsure of where he had been. Racking his brain curiously, he was mildly surprised to find that not only did he have no memories of his past, but no clues as to his identity, not even his name. He shrugged this off, looking back up and starting to walk around, exploring his surroundings with a childish curiosity and naiveté. The voices resumed their conversation, with a third voice now added to the mix.

"Good Lord... that Navi was found at the synthesis point?"

"Yes sir, just as he is now."

"That's impossible... no part of this experiment should have resulted in a Navi being created. I wonder if EM waves are part of its construction..."

"Hey, you! You, down there, in the black!"

The Navi stopped for a minute and looked down; as it turns out, he was colored in black. He looked up, toward where the voice was coming from.

"Who are you?"

"I don't know," the Navi responded.

"You... what? How did you get here?"

"I don't know that either." The Navi started to walk around again, exploring his surroundings. "Don't ask me any more questions." The voices resumed their discussion, one which the Navi selectively ignored.

"How could he not know? He's a Navi, he's programmed with a set of instructions. It's not like he's got a mind of his own, right?"

"What do you think we should do, Dr. Doppler?"

"This is definitely not any normal Navi... if this is the result of EM wave synthesis, then we should stop immediately and begin studying this Navi."

"I'll go and report this, we can get some Official Navis to subdue him..."

The Navi finished walking in his circle and thought to himself. He wasn't exactly an expert in the field, but the controls and processors surrounding him appeared to be research devices, as far as he could tell. Was he being studied? That didn't seem likely; from what he could gather of the talking voices, his presence was a complete accident by all accounts. They didn't exactly seem pleased, more confused, just like himself.

Whatever the case, he decided that he wasn't going to get anything done just standing around; he needed to move, go places. As he started to walk away, a flash of light appeared in front of him, one that quickly changed into an orange Navi; looking around, he found that other, similar orange Navis were appearing around him in a circle. He was surrounded by five of them.

"You're going to have to come with us," one Navi declared, walking forward.

The black Navi's eyes narrowed. "Am I now?"

"Do not try to resist, or we are going to have to use force." The orange Navi grabbed his wrist tightly, attempting to pull him along; the black Navi grabbed his handler's wrist in response, and tore off the entire arm in one smooth motion. Before the Official could even respond, the black Navi outstretched his hand and drove it cleanly through the Official's chest; the orange Navi quickly dissolved away, deleted.

"He has grown hostile!" one of the other Officials reported, and the ring of orange Navis quickly closed in. The black Navi turned and delivered a powerful uppercut to the nearest Navi; in the same motion, he turned his fist, and the Official, toward another orange Navi, and the two fell backward as the black Navi fired a powerful energy blast, destroying them both. Continuing his spin, he lifted his leg and drove his foot straight through a fourth Navi's torso; pulling it out, he dashed forward and grabbed the final Official by the throat. As the Official gasped, the black Navi's hand began to glow, until an explosion engulfed the final Navi. The black Navi looked around, as the final remains of the Navis he had battled were dissolving away.

"What the hell... what kind of power does this Navi have? He just took out five of our strongest Officials!"

"I can't believe this... I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!"

"Dr., how are we supposed to capture him now?"

The black Navi looked up, no longer ignoring their conversation. They were going to try again to capture him; whoever these voices were, they were clearly a violent, controlling bunch. He turned away from them, looking back at some of the paths leading away, and dashed away, retreating into hiding in the depths of the computer system, as the observing humans were left scratching their heads.

--

"This Navi is clearly dangerous! You saw how strong he was, how easily he took out our Official Navis! He needs to be taken care of, right away!"

In another room, close to where the black Navi had been discovered, a number of scientists were gathered around a table, discussing rather loudly what they were going to do about this development.

"Are you crazy?" Dr. Doppler exclaimed. "Clearly, this is a massive research opportunity! Created through EM wave synthesis, incredibly strong, and with unknown, advanced cognitive abilities? He must be studied!"

"Well, whatever we end up doing, we can't just let this Navi run free. Who knows what sort of damage he'll do if he goes unchecked?"

"Agreed," responded someone else. "We're going to have to round up a powerful force, so that he can be incapacitated. I can go talk to the Net division of the armed forces, see what we can do."

"Once again, your plan has all the tact and finesse of a chainsaw." The room looked over toward the door, where a blond-haired, mustachioed scientist in a dark green suit was standing in the doorway. "Tell me, was this Navi violent in any way before you decided to spring an attack on him?"

"Well... no..." The scientist sat down, rubbing his chin, as another snorted derisively.

"You think you could have done better, Cossack? What's your big plan?"

"My plan?" Dr. Cossack reiterated. "I plan to study him as well, but to obtain his cooperation in a more sensible way. If his cognitive abilities are in any way similar to a human's as your observation suggests, then we should be treating this Navi with something resembling human dignity."

"What, you're just going to go talk to that freak?!"

"Yes," Cossack replied simply. Without another word, he turned and walked out of the room, approaching the machine where the black Navi appeared. He pulled out his PET and jacked in.

--

In a dark corner of the computer system, the black Navi plotted his next move to himself. He could not find any way out of this computer system, and his attackers surely would be returning with reinforcements. As best as he could figure, he would have to try and escape in the same manner as those orange beings were getting in, whatever that way.

He froze and listened, as he heard the sound of footsteps coming his way, with no attempt being made to conceal them. He readied himself to attack, and was in this offensive stance when a figure appeared. It was a green Navi, highly customized, so that it resembled a blond man in a green suit.

"Who are you?" the black Navi demanded.

"My name is Dr. Mikhail Sergeyevich Cossack," the green Navi responded, repeating the words spoken by its owner, its hands in the air. "I mean you no harm, I assure you. I have a proposition for you, should you choose to accept it."

The black Navi snorted. "What is it you want?"

"I'll be frank; I would like to observe you and test your capabilities, both physical and mental. I'm not sure how you came to be here, but your capabilities are far above that of Navis we can produce. You would reside in my computer system for the next several months, and together we would conduct some simple experiments to judge the extent of your abilities."

"Why should I come with you?" The Navi aimed his arm toward the scientist. "Your comrades tried to capture and destroy me, how do I know you won't just do the same thing?"

"I leave that up to your judgment," Cossack's Navi responded. "If you think I can be trusted, then come with me. If not, you can destroy my Navi here, and I won't try to contact you again."

The black Navi mused this over, keeping his arm raised and ready to attack. This person was different from the others, at least on the surface, but that was no guarantee that he would be any less hostile once these "experiments" began. His limited experience with these beings had been less than pleasant, to say the least. Then again, this person did act rather differently... not necessarily kinder, but he was certainly less condescending, and seemed sincere. There was also the fact that he had nowhere else to go, while he was stuck here.

He eventually lowered his arm and walked forward. "Alright... I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. We'll see if you can be trusted once these experiments begin."

Cossack's Navi smiled, and the two began walking out. "They already have. And so far, you're doing quite well. Though if I'm going to be interacting with you regularly, I need something that I can call you by."

"Well, I don't have a name to give you," the black Navi responded. "Unless you can think of something, we're at a standoff."

Cossack smirked, as they approached the place where his PET connected to the system. "I had a couple of things in mind. We'll see how they grab you."


	2. Chapter 2

**The History of Forte**

A companion piece to New MegaMan Battle Network.

_Editor's Note: this story is meant to flesh out and enhance the universe of NMMBN. It takes place concurrent to, and reveals plot details of, the original story._

----------

Chapter 2

The black Navi sat on the floor of the Cyberworld, deep in thought like every other day, mostly preoccupied with his past. Completely devoid of memories, he had nothing but theories to go on; the present and future, however, were of little interest to him. He knew what the present held for him, and had no reason to change the status quo; the only things he wondered about were his origins, and so he focused on them every moment of his spare time.

Could he really just be the anomalous creation of an unrelated laboratory experiment? In an instant, he had come into this world, with a fully-formed body and mind. He was anything but a child; he had an extensive knowledge of the natural world, including physical laws and how computer systems operated, and he was very aware that he was quite mature on an intellectual level even for a human, let alone a Navi. The one thing he didn't have was any personal experience with any of these things, a rather peculiar gap. The more he thought about it, the more clear it seemed that his memories had somehow been erased. That didn't make much sense either, but none of his theories were all that credible.

"Any luck, Bass?"

The black Navi looked up, seeing a screen in front of him; Dr. Cossack's face looked back at him curiously.

"None, as usual." Bass stood up. "No memories at all, not even the faintest inkling. Theories are all I have to go on, and those won't do me much good."

"Well, don't let it get to you," Cossack offered. "I've got a somewhat different kind of experiment today." Before Bass could ask what it was, a small, glowing sphere appeared in front of him; he looked down at it curiously.

"What is this?" he wondered.

"Touch it and find out," Cossack replied. Bass shrugged and reached out, putting his hand on the glowing sphere; an instant later, the sphere disappeared, and Bass felt a strange warmth and presence inside him for a second.

He looked down at his hands. "What's happened? Was I just upgraded?"

Cossack nodded. "I want to see how you'll use it in demanding situations."

Bass's eyebrows raised. "Demanding?" He instinctively turned around, and met with a large, metallic, spider-like virus; it had four long, thin legs connected to and supporting its torso, and its arms each ended in some sort of laser cannon. The virus started advancing and firing on Bass, sending out thin, purple laser beams; Bass moved quickly to dodge the attacks, able to sense their immense power.

"Cossack, how am I supposed to use this upgrade? I don't even know what it is!"

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," was Cossack's reply. Bass grumbled under his breath, powering up an energy blast and flinging it at the virus; it bounced right off the virus's metallic frame, not doing any damage whatsoever. The virus continued its advance, firing more lasers, as Bass quickly backed off and began thinking to himself.

_Okay, I need to think here..._ He kept his eyes on the virus. _My attacks just bounce right off of it, what is that thing made of? I need to get a better look before I proceed..._ Bass dashed forward, avoiding more lasers as he moved to get up right next to the virus; one of them passed right next to his head, nearly taking out one of his fins.

_Damn... need to be more careful with those lasers_, Bass muttered to himself, as he put his hand on the virus, trying to get a sense of its construction. _That'd be a useful attack to have..._

Immediately upon thinking this, Bass felt a familiar sensation, a strange warmth and presence suddenly occurring insude him. The virus went quiet for a second as this happened, then immediately turned toward Bass, attacking again. Bass jumped backward and swung his hand in the virus's direction, his mind once again on the lasers; immediately, a thin, purple laser, exactly like what the virus was firing, emitted from the tips of his fingers. He blinked and looked down at his hand, highly surprised, before he came to an understanding.

"Now I get it... this was the upgrade you gave me, Cossack."

"Well done," Cossack congratulated. "Now put that beam to good use, yes?" Bass smirked and pointed his fingers directly at the virus, firing the laser at its body; the laser pierced the virus through its torso. It stalled for a second before collapsing and disintegrating, its remains flying away.

"That's my Get Ability program," Cossack explained, his screen popping up once again. "It allows you to copy and acquire most abilities from viruses, Navis, other devices... I thought it would encourage your problem-solving skills."

"This could be extremely useful," Bass reflected, looking at his hand. "Not just attacks, but defensive and support abilities..."

"That's the kind of thinking I'm hoping to encourage." Cossack adjusted his glasses. "The ability to solve problems without violence, something I've always encouraged."

"That sounds like you, alright." Bass put his hand down, looking back up toward Cossack. "Is that all for today?"

"No, that's not all," Cossack replied. "I've got some other things to try as well, more standard experiments as usual. We can get started whenever you're ready."

Bass nodded. "Let's get started, then."

--

_Day 71: Bass is finally beginning to show serious progress regarding his moral compass. His Get Ability program has allowed him to acquire a number of different abilities, both offensive and defensive, and he is now regularly using them to seek out less destructive means of ending battles. Five days ago, as previously noted, he was faced with a battle situation in which he elected to disable his opponents rather than destroy them; today, however, he expressed for the first time a desire to move to experiments that were more intellectually stimulating._

_As such, I am officially declaring his strength tests complete. In addition to the subject's lack of desire to continue, I have exhausted my resources and creativity, and I feel my data is as robust as it is ever going to be. His abilities are absolutely superlative in every way; he is to SciLab's best efforts as an elephant is to an insect. With his permission, I have conducted a number of analyses on his structure, and I have offered this data to two SciLab protegés, Mr. Lucius Regal and Mr. Yuichiro Hikari, who are working with SciLab in conjunction with their graduate research; given their past successes, I expect them to do great things with this information._

_Bass's intellectual capacities, however, continue to astonish me week after week. He has shown a capacity for reasoning that far exceeds any computer or Navi I have been able to work with, and I see no reason not to speak to him as my intellectual equal, which he has all but proven himself to be. I feel the next step in my research with Bass is to involve him more directly with my work at SciLab; I believe it could be possible, in the span of one or two years, to make him a member of our SciLab research team. My mind is truly reeling with the possibilities._

Cossack sat back, satisfied with his log entry. He looked out the window; the sun had set about an hour ago, and most other employees had long since departed. He had stayed behind, caught up in his research with Bass, fascinated with his mental capacity. He put his feet up on the desk, planning out the next stage in his research.

"Another late night, Cossack?"

Dr. Cossack quickly turned around in his swivel chair, to face the voice that came from behind him. He quickly stood up and saluted, finding himself faced with the general of the Electopian army.

The man laughed. "At ease, Cossack, at ease. How're you? How's the Mrs.?"

"She's improving, thank goodness, but it'll still be a couple of years before she recovers fully." Cossack lowered his arm and relaxed his stance. "What brings you here, Petraus?"

Petraus leaned against the back wall of Cossack's offace. "The guys at SciLab have been making quite a bit of buzz about a certain new Navi here. Bass, was it?"

"He's unlike any Navi anyone has ever seen," Cossack responded. "Talking to him is like talking with a human, an adult human. He's amazingly intelligent."

"Yea, I heard something about that," the general replied, rather dismissively. "Other people have been talking about how strong he is, though. Powerful like a computerized atom bomb."

Cossack shook his head. "Well, that's something we would have achieved before too long, it just takes time. His mind, now that's really amazing. Strength isn't that interesting."

Petraus smirked. "That depends who you're talking to, Cossack. A Navi that powerful, imagine the sort of things he could achieve for weapons research. He could work wonders, working with a PMC, or a state military..."

Dr. Cossack glared at Petraus, now knowing this was anything but a friendly visit. "What do you want, general?"

"Right to the point, then. I want Bass." Petraus stood up fully, trying to appear as imposing as he could manage. "With his strength, we could analyze him and use him to simulate new weaponry. We could make weapons of incredible power; there wouldn't be a nation that would dare challenge us. Total military superiority... think about it."

"Absolutely not." Cossack unfolded his arms. "I'm not going to stop my research because you want to rise in the world ranks. Bass is going to revolutionize the world of Navis and supercomputing; he could potentially be the bridge to the future. And in case you haven't noticed, this is a time of peace. There's no reason to develop weapons."

"Cossack, don't be naive. Don't forget about the ongoing violence in the Fertile Crescent. Not to mention several of our allies are mere economic partners; if they should break off their economic ties with Electopia, the balance of world power would shift drastically."

"You're completely paranoid, Petraus," Cossack answered. "But even if you weren't, my answer would still be no. I'm not letting you take him, he means too much for our research."

Petraus tutted. "I'm sorry to hear that." He reached into his jacket, pulling out some papers. "I didn't want to have to use these..."

Cossack eyeballed them carefully, trying to read them. "What are those?"

"They're tax forms. More specifically, they're your 2068 tax returns." He pulled out a pair of reading glasses, putting them on and taking a look at the forms. "Would you look at that... one million Zennys in income from the IPC Corporation, for various research contributions. I wonder where exactly you had the time and resources to do that kind of work?"

He smirked and looked up at Cossack, whose cool demeanor betrayed the panic that had occupied his body. "Come to think of it, there's a lot of resources available here... and you do spend a lot of time here after hours, I hear?"

Cossack didn't respond, staring down the general; Petraus brushed this off, continuing on assertively.

"You hand Bass over, and I can make these little discrepancies disappear, and you can continue your little side job with IPC. If you resist, I can't guarantee your job security, I'm afraid."

"You realize blackmail is against the law, general." Cossack finally found his voice, but Petraus merely laughed.

"You're going to take me to federal court? Even if you do that, your activity was against the rules as well. You'll be made a disgrace in the public eye, and then not even IPC is going to employ you. If you don't hand Bass over, you're going to be delivering pizzas for a living, Mikhail. Face it."

Cossack's mind was working overtime. If he refused the general's demands, he could at least ensure that Bass landed in the hands of Hikari or Regal, who would most certainly be able to continue his research. On the other hand, he couldn't afford to lose his jobs with SciLab and IPC; there would be no way to pay his wife's high medical bills. No matter what he decided, he would lose something important to him.

He finally sighed and unfolded his arms. "I'll go and get him."

Petraus grinned evilly, handing over a spare PET. "Glad you're seeing sense, Cossack. Don't be long, now."

Dr. Cossack took the PET from Petraus and walked out of his office, heading down the hall and into the room where he conducted his research. He turned on the lights, looking at the machine where Bass was most likely sitting and thinking, trying to uncover the mysteries of his past. Bass wasn't just a test subject; he was his peer, and he was the future of computer research. He could scarcely imagine that Bass wouldn't be there the next day, eager to prove himself to Dr. Cossack.

He rubbed his forehead, pausing for a few minutes before finally pulling out the spare PET and plugging it in.


	3. Chapter 3

**The History of Forte**

A companion piece to New MegaMan Battle Network.

_Editor's Note: this story is meant to flesh out and enhance the universe of NMMBN. It takes place concurrent to, and reveals plot details of, the original story._

----------

Chapter 3

Bass moved forward silently, on his way toward Sky Town's Net space in Cyber Net City. He put his hand on the communicator device on his hip; it felt rather dated and overly large, but Petraus had assured him that normal communication would be all but impossible when he was battling the Cybeasts. Not only that, but the Cybeasts had rather abnormal effects on any Navi that approached, and the device on his hip would hopefully stop him from transforming. He zipped along, making his way into the Sky Town framework, looking for his opponents. He wasn't sure what sort of monsters could possibly be a match for him, and this being the case, he was rather intrigued by the battle that lay before him.

--

For the past three months, his life had been a frustrating tedium. He has been continually used by the military in order to develop and test their weapons; they would be simulated in cyberspace, and Bass would inevitably have to defend against them, or try and destroy them if they were something defensive, both exercises that Bass found to be beneath him. Bass could have left at any time, but had other reasons for remaining.

He was working in government Net space, which meant that he was a stone's throw away from the SciLab Net area. Once he had realized what his new life would entail, he had returned to SciLab one night and looked for Dr. Cossack's computer, quickly finding his logs. It was clear that Cossack had not given up Bass voluntarily; he guessed that General Petraus, the man who currently ordered Bass around, had coerced Cossack into surrendering his project. His suspicions were supported by the fact that Cossack had left SciLab mere days after.

Thus, he remained with the military. It was only every few days that he would be called upon for weapons testing; any day that he was not needed was spent in secrecy at SciLab, observing the research teams and learning everything he possibly could about Navis, the Net, and the research going on in these areas. He had read Cossack's comments about Bass being capable of doing SciLab research on his own, and Bass aimed to prove him right. His nights, however, were spent looking into Petraus, trying to find anything he could use to defame the man and get revenge for what he had done. He had remembered well Cossack's lesson about victory through non-violent means, but Cossack hadn't gotten the chance to advise him on avoiding conflict altogether.

Three months on, Bass had surprised even himself with his progress. He had a deep understanding of the framework of the Net, and had managed to solve some questions that were throwing the current researchers for a loop. Occasionally, the researchers would find themselves at a complete standstill, and Bass would have to leave them subtle hints in order to help them continue, by modfying their notes, or changing the results of an experiment ever so slightly; one time, to amuse himself, he even sent a cleverly hidden clue in a chain e-mail to Yuichiro Hikari's girlfriend, Haruka Nakashima. By working together in this rather unorthodox manner, research at SciLab flourished.

He had made a fair amount of progress with Petraus, as well. From what he could find, the man had a history of abusing his power in order to get what he wanted, which fueled Bass's suspicions. Delving as deep as he could, he was able to uncover a couple choice pieces of hard evidence, and he knew that, with enough planning, he could use them to expose Petraus as a corrupt politician. Before he could get the chance, however, a couple of obstacles appeared.

Both SciLab and the military were heavily disrupted by the appearance of the two Cybeasts, Gregar and Falzar. SciLab had found themselves completely helpless in the face of these powerful creatures, and even the weapons Bass had helped develop in Net form could only deter them at best. After days of combat, the military decided to send in Bass himself to tip the scales. While he was intrigued by the possibility of a good battle, he wanted to get it over and done with, to get back to more productive activities.

--

Bass eventually found his target, the Cybeasts, cornered in a portion of the Sky Town Net. Two enormous creatures, one wolf and one falcon, were doing battle with a number of Navis, equipped with powerful military weapons; each of the Cybeasts seemed to be fending for itself, as if two separate battles were being fought. With Bass added in, the Cybeasts would most definitely lose this battle.

Moving forward, he saw the falcon, Falzar, extend his wings toward the military Navis; a flurry of razor-sharp feathers flew out toward Falzar's opponents. They braced themselves for impact, but it never came; looking forward, they saw the feathers being deflected by some sort of translucent blue shield.

"Looks like you could use a hand," Bass spoke from behind them; he glided forward, past the other Navis, to face the giant falcon. "I'll take this one. You focus your attention on the wolf."

"Are you crazy?! You can't take on one of those by yourself!" one of the Navis exclaimed, as Falzar fired another round of feathers toward Bass. Bass aimed his arm at the ground, firing a strange projectile; as soon as it hit, a tall cyclone sprouted out of the ground, which caught the feathers in its rotating winds. Bass pointed his finger toward the Cybeast, and all the feathers flew right back toward their owner, slicing his wings and causing Falzar to shriek in pain.

The head Navi blinked, dumbfounded, before turning to the others. "Everyone, focus all your attention on the wolf! Bass is going to take this one!" The military group rearranged itself, and the battle against the Cybeasts began again.

--

Hundreds of miles away, Petraus watched the action unfold on a computer screen, as several SciLab scientists watched as well from behind.

"Amazing... Bass may be even more powerful than Dr. Cossack thought," one scientist commented.

Petraus nodded, his face not showing emotion. "With his help, those Cybeasts may end up being defeated after all. Let's hope he keeps it up..."

Another military officer stepped forward. "What happens if Bass ends up not being able to defeat them?"

"I've thought of that," Petraus answered very quietly, a bit of a smirk crossing his face. "I've got a backup plan in place, in case Bass is unable to continue." The other officer nodded, as Petraus continued to smirk.

_You think you can get away with your plan, do you, Bass?_ Petraus thought to himself. _Snooping around records, trying to dig up dirt on me... we'll see who has the last laugh._

--

After hours of battle, it appeared as if the Cybeasts were indeed going to lose. While Bass and Falzar were more or less equally matched, the might of the military's Cyberweaponry had Gregar outclassed; soon, only one Cybeast would remain, and Falzar would fall shortly after that.

Bass swiftly dodged a blast from Falzar, gliding toward the falcon and slamming his body into it; Falzar flew backward and collided with its lupine counterpart. Standing back up, Gregar returned its focus to the Navis, while Falzar took a look at the advancing Bass. After apparently contemplating for a minute, Falzar turned away and joined Gregar in his attack on the other Navis.

Bass's eyes widened. "No, no, no!" He dashed forward, ready to attack Falzar again, but Gregar reared up instead, charging and knocking the unprepared Bass a good distance away. As Bass rubbed his head and stood up, he watched as the two Cybeasts, in almost no time at all, tore a completely unsuspecting military corps to shreds. When only a few Navis and weapons were left, the two Cybeasts turned their attention to the more dangerous threat, Bass.

Bass cursed under his breath, knowing he could never take on both Gregar and Falzar in battle. Racking his brain for plans, he found none, but decided to proceed as best he could anyway, having no recourse.

"Alright, you two," he started, flying toward the two monsters. "Let's see how powerful all of us really are!" He lifted his fist, which had started glowing, and got ready to attack, when he suddenly became aware of a beeping sound from his hip. Looking down quickly, he saw his overlarge communicator was beeping; shortly after, it started to glow and crackle with energy.

"Petraus..." Bass muttered, understanding in an instant that he had been set up. "You..."

As the remaining Navis watched, Bass and the Cybeasts were engulfed in a massive explosion of amazing power; several Navis were caught up in the blast, and the framework of the Net itself was partially torn apart. The devices through which Petraus and the others observed the battle were nearly destroyed, overloaded with energy. When the smoke and the light finally faded, the observers saw the crippled, immobile Cybeasts lying on the rent ground, with a very small number of Navis remaining. Bass was nowhere to be found.

Petraus stared for a moment, giving an impression of surprise, before leaning in and issuing orders. "All remaining Navis, move in! Use the Petrifier to capture those two Cybeasts, while we have the chance!" The Navis nodded and moved toward the Cybeasts, no one saying a word about Bass's apparent suicide. Petraus nodded to himself, smiling inwardly, having killed two birds with one stone.

--

Far away from the site of the Cybeast battle, a crowd of dark Navis gathered in a circle, as something in the center began to stir. The Navi eventually opened his eyes, blinking and looking around as his vision came back to him.

"Wha..." Bass started. "Where am I? What happened?"

"Hey, he's finally awake," a female voice commented; Bass looked over to see which Navi was speaking. He saw a dark-skinned Navi, dressed in black clothes with large white pants; long, blonde bangs flowed from a golden helmet, and the Navi bore golden armor on her shoulders, stomach and wrists as well. "I didn't think you'd ever wake up, your pieces were scattered all across the Undernet."

"The Undernet..." He had heard much about this place; it was a portion of the Net to which rogue Navis and dangerous Operators had flocked, and it had been close to forsaken by most. Bass was unsure of how exactly it had gotten into this state, but he put it out of his mind for now.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get up."

Bass looked up at the Navi. "Excuse me?"

The female Navi smirked. "I want to fight you. It's been ages since I had a good battle."

Bass stood up, as the other Navis backed away; it was rather strange that she had had him put back together just for a battle, but he ignored that. "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't want to battle me."

"Trust me, I do." She folded her arms. "Unless you're afraid you'll be humiliated, of course..."

Bass snorted derisively; he realized that this was the sort of place driven by power and respect, and that backing down from a challenge was of no use to him. "I'm not afraid of any Navi, least of all yourself." He started to power himself up.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" The black and gold Navi dropped into stance. "Alright, show me what you've got!"

Bass fired an energy blast toward his opponent, she dodged quickly, and the battle began.


	4. Chapter 4

**The History of Forte**

A companion piece to New MegaMan Battle Network.

_Editor's Note: this story is meant to flesh out and enhance the universe of NMMBN. It takes place concurrent to, and reveals plot details of, the original story._

----------

Chapter 4

From all over the Undernet, rogues, vermin, and Dark Navis alike headed toward the Undersquare, the central hub of the Undernet; they crowded it, walking on top of one another, trying to get a better view. In the middle of all the hubbub, a spectacular battle was taking place, between the two most powerful Navis anybody had ever seen.

"Who is this guy?" one bystander spoke to another. "He's going toe-to-toe with Serenade and he's not even breaking a sweat!"

"I heard he's some SciLab project or something," another answered. "Boy, anyone who can battle Serenade like this, I wouldn't want to get on his bad side."

In the center of the makeshift arena, Bass and his female opponent continually clashed, trying to get the better of one another; even though the battle was primarily for sport, both of them were fighting with great intensity, giving it everything they had. Bass was focusing hard on victory, while Serenade seemed to be enjoying herself much more.

"Missed me!" she taunted, dancing out of the way of one of Bass's energy blasts; immediately after, she produced a sword, and her blade met with Bass's as he dashed at her, swinging powerfully. The two of them became locked in a strength contest, both struggling to overpower the other.

"So what's your name, anyway?" Serenade inquired.

Bass snorted. "What do you care?"

Serenade grinned. "Oh, come on. Just because we're locked in a vicious battle doesn't mean we can't be civil."

Bass smirked. "Bass, then."

"Bass, huh?" Serenade raised an eyebrow at his reply, relaxing a tad. "Where'd a name like that come from?"

Instead of answering, Bass took advantage of Serenade's relaxation, overpowering her and elbowing her in the gut, quickly following with a powerful uppercut. As Serenade reeled for an instant, Bass fired a powerful energy blast at her torso, thinking he had the upper hand at last.

As the energy blast got within inches of Serenade's body, two strange, orange bands flashed behind her body, as if forming two sections of a larger sphere; the energy blast suddenly split into two, running along the ground in either direction to the side of Serenade. Bass did a double-take, seeing his attack completely deflected.

"What?!" he exclaimed, as Serenade suddenly reached out and grabbed his wrist, flipping in the air and slamming Bass into the ground. She landed on him with a shoulder-check for good measure.

"You'll have to try better than that!" Serenade called out, as Bass got to his feet and looked over at his opponent.

"This is absurd... how are you so strong? Where do you come from?" he demanded; the temporary moment of lightheartedness had faded within him, replaced with anger and determination. "There's no Navi that's as strong as me!"

"Well, it looks like there's at least one!" Serenade responded, outstretching her palm in Bass's direction. A powerful gust of wind knocked her opponent backwards, as a series of electrical attacks ran through the ground every which way.

Bass fought against the wind as best he could, while dodging the electric pulses. As he fought just to avoid taking damage, a fair amount of frustration began to set in. Having to battle this hard just to match his opponent was not something he was used to; he was the strongest Navi, he had thought, things like this never happened to him.

As his frustration grew, a feeling of anger grew within him as well. As he struggled against the immensely powerful Serenade, his mind autonomously brought up his battle with the Cybeasts, and with that, his betrayal by Petraus. His rage continued to grow, until he finally screamed in frustration and fired a powerful blast behind him; the explosion propelled him forward through Serenade's attack, and he knocked her away with a powerful punch to the jaw. As she reeled, he stood and tried to focus himself; if he continued to fight with pure anger, he surely was going to lose this battle.

"Boo!" Navis jeered him from the sidelines. "Weak!" "Come on Serenade, beat this loser into the ground!" Bass's eyes burned again as he turned to the crowd, pointing his open palm in their direction.

"Shut UP!" he yelled, firing a powerful blast at the jeering Navis; it exploded in the middle of the crowd, scattering the Navis about. They continued to boo him, louder now, for his poor sportsmanship. Bass gritted his teeth in frustration, flying up into the air and preparing a much more powerful energy blast. As he threw it down, however, it was intercepted by Serenade, who appeared in front of him, and the blast was deflected.

"Geez, you fight with a lot of anger, buddy," she commented. "Sounds like there's something bugging you, huh?"

"That's none of your business!" Bass swiped at her, missing her easily; she appeared behind him and dealt a powerful blow that sent him back to the ground. Flipping and landing on his feet, Bass quickly produced a sword to block a swipe from his opponent.

"Aw, c'mon," Serenade lamented. "What's the deal? Somebody piss you off?"

"I told you it's none of your business! Back off!" Bass warned, swiping again at Serenade, who backed away quickly with a leap.

"Hm, this sounds pretty bad," Serenade teased, grinning and dashing forward. "Maybe he hurt a friend of yours or something? Someone you trust?"

Bass suddenly stopped, having had an epiphany. Serenade, seeing what she thought was an opening, moved in to punch, but Bass simply outstretched his palm and caught her fist, taking Serenade by surprise.

"Enough," Bass spoke; his anger was gone, and his mind clear. "I know a leading question when I hear one. You know exactly who I am, and what's happened to me."

Bass pushed her backward, and she stumbled for a moment before regaining her balance. "You weren't interested in this fight at all, were you? You were just trying to get me to talk about myself."

"I was kind of interested in the fight..." Serenade grumbled.

"This fight is over," Bass responded derisively. "Now out with it. Who are you, how do you know me?"

"Fair enough." Serenade folded her arms. "Call me Serenade. I basically keep the Undernet in check, make sure they don't cause trouble for the rest of the world."

"How very noble of you," Bass responded. "Were you programmed to do that or something?"

She shook her head. "I chose this role myself. I had my reasons." She focused her eyes on him and continued. "I've had my eyes on you for quite some time, Bass. You and I are of the same kind, you know."

Bass raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Serenade smirked. "Oh, you know. Mysterious origins, incredible powers... it seems like you've had worse luck than I, though..."

Bass turned away. "Miserable humans... all they want to do is use me for their own personal gain. Chew me up, spit me out. It makes me sick."

Serenade laughed. "Miserable humans? Come on, what kind of talk is that? How many humans have you actually met?"

Bass thought to himself, a contemplative look on his face. "Truthfully, not many... less than a dozen, I'd say."

"A dozen humans, out of what, seven billion?" Serenade walked toward him. "And they can't all have been bad, could they? None of them redeemed themselves?"

Bass turned around to face Serenade. "What is this? Are you trying to save my soul or something?"

The female Navi smirked. "Something like that, yea."

Bass looked down, walking past her. "No, then. They weren't all bad. Happy?"

"Don't let your opinions be swayed by the worst element, Bass," Serenade called to him. "There are plenty of selfish humans out there, but the majority are good people. They wouldn't have used you like that madman did. Think about it."

"You're that confident in them, are you?"

Serenade nodded, despite Bass having his back turned to her. "I've seen more of them than you, at least. That's why I put myself here. I wanted to do what I could to protect them."

Bass looked back at Serenade for a moment, before turning away again. "Very well, then." He started to walk away.

"Where're you going?" Serenade called out.

"I'm going to see if what you say is true," Bass answered. "I'll spend some time observing this human race that you seem to have gotten attached to. We'll see if they're worth your protection."

Serenade smirked. "Alright, then. Don't forget that you can always come back here, if you need someplace to recharge."

"I'll keep that in mind." Bass leapt into the air, flying off to the exit of the Undernet, leaving Serenade watching him, a smile on her face.

"Goodness, he's a curious one, isn't he? Always interested in investigating, finding the answers..." She sighed. "Forte... you'll learn the truth soon enough, trust me."

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the crowd of Navis was still encircling the makeshift arena, watching and listening curiously.

"What the hell are you guys looking at?" she demanded. The crowd, fearful, quickly dispersed.


	5. Chapter 5

**The History of Forte**

A companion piece to New MegaMan Battle Network.

_Editor's Note: this story is meant to flesh out and enhance the universe of NMMBN. It takes place concurrent to, and reveals plot details of, the original story._

----------

Chapter 5

Bass walked along the Net space of the SciLab research area, heading to one last location before he was to retire for the night. Perhaps he would return to Undernet Square, he thought to himself, to relax and recharge before setting out again; while he didn't particularly like residing amongst the uncouth vermin that populated the Undernet, he preferred the company of Navis to that of humans, especially that of Serenade. Though she wasn't quite his intellectual equal, she was still able to regularly offer perspective on his situation, as well as a sparring partner. Only one other had ever been so relatable to Bass, and he had left his life a long time ago.

--

Over two and a half years had passed since Bass's battle with the Cybeasts, and almost all of the intervening time had been spent studying the human race from the shadows. He had hoped that Serenade was right, that the human race was mostly virtuous, with only a few corrupt individuals. From what he had observed so far, however, he wasn't too sure. It seemed that there was an even split between virtue and corruption among the humans he had observed, and for many people both would reside within, jockeying for position in the person's soul. If there was anything he knew for sure, it was that the human race, on the whole, was far from rational.

He had made an attempt to study humans of all kinds, from different races, classes, and all sorts, but the question of morality proved to be extremely difficult to isolate. There were certainly some links between specific demographics, but that only raised additional questions as to extenuating circumstances, and trying to plot out all the causes and effects of the actions of the human race was a trying task indeed, but he continued mostly undeterred. He felt that if there was anyone capable of completely mapping the complexities of this problem, it was himself. One thing he could see for certain, at least, was that power had a tendency to corrupt, which would explain the actions of General Petraus rather neatly.

He recalled an incident where he had tapped into the office of the Prime Minister of Electopia, in order to study what the effects of such power would be on a person. This had ended up being a mistake; he had anticipated that there would be Net security guarding the Prime Minister's office, but he had severely underestimated the strength and number of the protective Navis, and he ended up fleeing the scene. Looking into the matter later, he realized that the data of himself, garnered by Cossack, was being researched and routinely applied to the latest generation of Navis. He made a mental note to train and increase his strength routinely, lest he someday be surpassed by a stock model Navi.

Despite all his observations, however, he remained completely unsatisfied. He had been nothing but the impartial observer of random happenings, random interactions; this was hardly an ideal way to gather information on his subjects. He had no control over the situations he observed, and in many cases his information was woefully incomplete. What he needed was a controlled situation, one adhering to the scientific method that his SciLab peers cherished. If he was to truly analyze these humans, he would have to stop observing, and start experimenting.

--

He finally reached his destination, a small, round device planted into the framework of the Net. Bending down, he touched his hand and focused, absorbing the information that the device had gathered. He had installed devices like this all over the SciLab network; they were designed to capture information about experiments and research going on between the country's top scientists. Bass found this to be much more efficient than being present for the experiments themselves, as he had been before; this allowed him to keep himself up-to-date while he was exploring the world via the Net. He had been to other countries and observed the research there, but not much of it was of much concern to Bass; the rest of the world had a ways to go before catching up to Electopia's ingenuity.

He sighed, turning to leave, when he heard a beeping sound in his ear; his eyebrows raised in surprise. One of the devices was reporting SciLab activity, but it was much too late for that.

"What's going on?" Bass looked for the source of the signal, quickly finding it and traveling to the Net space where the work was taking place. A minute or so later, he had located a room where several machines were active, but from what he could analyze, the work going on was nothing like what usually happened at SciLab. Could there be hostile intruders?

He looked for the security camera mechanism, taking a look into the room. Expecting to find burglars or something similar, he was surprised to find a young woman sitting in the corner of the room, holding a baby in her arms. Scanning the rest of the room, he quickly found another body, one that he recognized this time: Dr. Yuichiro Hikari. Bass raised his eyebrows again, listening in on the sound the camera was picking up.

"So how are Tomoe and Viktor doing, anyway? Have they named their kid yet?"

The woman shook her head. "No, not yet." Bass recognized her as Haruka Nakashima, Yuichiro's significant other; from the looks of the child on her lap, they had gotten married and reproduced in Bass's absence. He shrugged this off and continued to listen.

"What?" Yuichiro exclaimed. "They're still not sure? That girl has to be two months old by now!"

Haruka laughed. "Three months, actually. They still can't agree on a name, they both want to name her after family members. Tomoe wants to name her May, after her aunt from Netopia, but Viktor keeps insisting on his sister's name, Melemei."

"For Pete's sake... you can't just go without a name for that long. Why can't they just compromise or something..."

Bass shook his head, annoyed; this wasn't of any interest to him. He scanned the rest of the room for clues as to what they were doing here. His eyes quickly came to rest on what seemed to be a cradle of sorts; lying in the center was another young baby, with a number of tubes connecting it to various equipment around the room. The child looked somewhat sickly, especially in comparison to the other baby, who was cooing happily on his mother's lap. Bass realized that this child must be the reason they were here at all; he kept himself tapped into the security camera, just in case, and started to explore what they were doing with the boy.

Haruka sighed. "God, I can't believe we're really doing this. Our little Hub... he might..."

"Hey now, don't talk like that," Yuichiro replied sternly. "This is purely an emergency measure. I don't expect anything's going to happen to our son, and you shouldn't either."

Haruka nodded, stroking the hair of the child in her lap. "I know... I know..."

_Emergency measure?_ Bass wondered. _What are they up to?_ He managed to locate, on the Net, the devices the child was connected to. Several of them, as he suspected, were life-support devices of one kind or another. One of them, however, seemed to be connecting the child directly to the Net; for what reason, he wasn't sure. He kept investigating.

"You're sure this is safe?" Haruka prompted.

"Of course I'm sure," Yuichiro replied. "I've tried this on myself several times, and some of my co-workers. There's no side effects whatsoever, I've checked thoroughly."

Haruka nodded. "Alright..."

Bass finally managed to find what he was looking for, the SciLab device which the child was connected to. Looking inside, he saw an extremely complex set of data arriving from the child; after looking it over for a minute, Bass deduced that it was something like brain wave activity, or human DNA. Intrigued, he followed the path of data further inside the machine, quickly finding its destination. Inside the data collection device, on a pedestal, stood a completely blank Navi of moderate height, the apparent recipient of this child's brain wave data.

Bass quickly realized what was going on. Faced with the prospect of losing their son forever, Dr. Hikari had put his scientific mind to work, and was storing his child's DNA, his thoughts, his soon-to-be-formed personality into this Navi. What death would take with its cold hand, technology would preserve, allowing this child to live on in one form of another. Yet another example of humans trying to cheat death with science, Bass thought to himself. As Bass watched Yuichiro's pained face look down upon his sickly child, he could hardly blame the man.

Bass pondered to himself the ramifications of such an action. Over the past two and a half years, he had observed humans holding dominion over the planet, and all of the less intelligent species with which they shared it. Navis, in Bass's experience, were almost no different, generally being tools created to ease the lives of humans; they did, though, possess some level of intelligence, however artificial it may have been. Given what he had seen of the Undernet, Navis were capable of self-interested autonomy, of thinking for themselves and caring for themselves, to some degree. Bass watched as the data flow finally slowed to a stop, entering into the Navi; its appearance began to change and shift over the next minute or so, until the Navi was covered in a blue bodysuit, with armor on his head, hands and feet.

This project of Dr. Hikari's breached the line between man and machine rather obviously. How would this Navi be treated, if it did indeed contain the "soul", as they called it, of this human child? Would he be identified by his human side, or the side of him that was a tool for human use? And if the child did get better, as his parents hoped, what would become of this blue Navi? Bass had a sickening feeling that the Navi would simply be disregarded and mistreated, the human side of him completely ignored.

_This poses a great number of interesting questions,_ Bass thought to himself, as the machine he was residing in started emitting a satisfied beeping sound. _I should investigate this further..._

Yuichiro walked over to the brain-capture device and pressed a few buttons. "Excellent, it went off without a hitch," he spoke.

Haruka stood up. "So Hub... his personality, his soul... it's in a Navi now?"

Yuichiro nodded. "A copy of it is, anyway. I've done it very extensively, more than I ever have before. There isn't going to be a single part of our son that will be missing, I guarantee it."

Haruka smiled and took her husband's hand, squeezing it tight. "I'm so glad... thank you, sweetie. I don't know what I would have done if we had lost little Hub completely..."

Yuichiro touched a couple of keys, and the blue Navi appeared on the screen, to Haruka's delight. "That's him?"

Yuichiro nodded. "The machine estimated what he would look like at about 12 years old. Cute kid, isn't he?"

Haruka smiled and nodded in agreemnt. The two held each other for a moment, feeling a large weight lift off their chests. Their tender moment was rudely interrupted, however, as a series of alarms suddenly filled the air.

"What the--?!" Yuichiro quickly turned toward the source of the noise, as the baby in Haruka's arms started crying, disturbed by all the noise. They both quickly discovered that the sounds were coming from Hub's life-support devices, and were accompanied by tiny, flashing warning lights. "No, no, no!"

"What's going on?!" Haruka cried out, as they ran over. "Did something go wrong?"

"His systems... they're all malfunctioning!" Yuichiro exclaimed, distressed. "But how... never mind. Call an ambulance, quick!" Haruka nodded and ran out of the room, as Yuichiro stayed, trying in vain to repair the devices sustaining his son's life.

"No, this can't be happening... I can't lose you, not like this..." He frantically hooked his PET up to the machines, trying to observe the damage. The mechanisms of the devices had malfunctioned on a major scale, seemingly for no reason. He cursed loudly and sat down, assured that something he had done had ruined everything. He reached down and rubbed his son's head gently, tears leaking from his eyes, praying that the ambulances would arrive in time.

By the time they did arrive, Bass had long ago left the network of SciLab. He would return to the Undernet and recuperate for some time, before setting out to observe again, equipped with a new perspective on his monumental research task.

"Nothing personal, Dr. Hikari," he muttered to himself, under his breath. His first experiment was underway.


End file.
